Jay Sean and Taio Cruz wowing America

Another UK singer tops the US charts. Could this be the start of a new British
invasion?

Last week, the US number-one single spot was held by a British artist, Taio Cruz, with his self-penned belter Break Your Heart. This is a surprisingly rare achievement. The UK enjoys a creative reputation as one of the twin engines of pop culture and is the second-biggest music exporter in the world – but you’d never guess it from the American charts.

The continued appetite for our Sixties and Seventies veterans (the Beatles were one of our biggest sellers last year), the profile of rock bands such as Coldplay and Radiohead, and the Simon Cowell poster-girls Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle help us hang on to about 10 per cent of the US albums market. But the days of the British Invasion, when our stars sang the hits that fuelled American teen dreams have long since passed.

A big part of the problem is that the US singles market has become increasingly dominated by the homegrown sounds of hip hop and R&B music – not traditionally areas in which British artists flourish.

Which makes the success of Taio Cruz even more remarkable. He is a young black man whose music is generally categorised as urban (though not by him). And he is not alone. Last year, British-Asian artist Jay Sean hit number one with a three-million-selling smash Down, in the process becoming the first British male to have a US chart-topper since Elton John with Candle in the Wind in 1997. That’s how rare it is. But, if one hit might be considered a lucky freak, could two signify a trend?

There are strong similarities between the music of Cruz and Sean. Their songs are sonically dense, melodically insistent, with heavily processed synthetic sounds and romantic lyrics. Strip away the urban stylings and their records fizz with the brash energy of Euro-pop, crammed with techno club sounds, singalong melodies and simple, emotional sentiments.

“I don’t think of it as urban music at all,” says Cruz. “I just think it’s good, catchy pop. What’s really happened is the musical trends are changing, and US artists are starting to make Euro-sounding records, which has the effect of making European electro-influenced music sound more urban.”

Jay Sean, interestingly, feels the same way. “It’s our UK pop spin on what we think urban music is. We have an urban vocal style, but we’ve got the great top-line pop melody that everybody can sing along to. Music is changing very quickly in the US. Hip hop is turning into a kind of pop-dance-electro thing, and that should suit British artists.”

Indeed, there has been an obvious fascination with the UK by leading US hip hop icons in recent years. Jay Z has become a frequent visitor here, befriending Coldplay, sampling UK hip hop adventurer MIA and conquering Glastonbury. Kanye West has collaborated with UK artists Estelle and Mr Hudson (who also cropped up on a recent Jay Z single), and P Diddy has struck up a friendship with Arctic Monkeys. If the golden era of Sixties beat music was born of transatlantic cross-fertilisation, there is just a hint that this mutual admiration society might be renewed.

“Hip hop is a sampling culture, and its always looking for the new sounds,” says Cruz. “People like Kanye started sampling [French techno mavericks] Daft Punk, and rappers started using Autotune on their vocals to make it sound more electronic. Pop has followed that trend, so it’s moved a bit closer to the kind of electro-pop sound of the UK. It’s becoming a universal pop sound, and we do it as well as anyone.”

There is something else quite obviously distinctive about both Sean and Cruz: they are both privately educated and speak very clearly and eloquently. “I have been told my accent is easier to understand than a typical London or cockney accent, which is so prevalent in British urban music, and I imagine that helps,” says Cruz, who boarded at Christ’s Hospital in Sussex.

“One thing they really appreciate in the US is if you’re just a nice person,” says Sean, who was a student at Latymer Upper School and went on to study medicine for two years before his music career took off. “If you’re easy to talk to and quite personable that should go a long way anywhere, but maybe its rarer than it should be.”

The implication is that the macho posturing of much UK urban music has been a hindrance in international terms. Indeed, while America has managed to export its gangsta culture to pop markets around the world, home-grown versions tend to be too parochial to travel.

“It’s where a lot of British urban artists go wrong in America,” says Cruz. “They talk about subjects Americans don’t get and places no one in America cares about, in accents they don’t understand. I think for music to cross over it needs to be universal, and there’s nothing more universal than love.”

It will take more than a couple of number ones to proclaim a new British Invasion, but both our chart-topping stars are optimistic about the special relationship. “Doors were opened for me by the success of Jay, and others before him like Craig David and Estelle, and I’m opening doors a little wider,” says Cruz.

“I see the wave coming now,” says Sean. “Taio is coming through, [boyband] JLS are coming through, Cheryl Cole looks as if she might come through. There are increasing references for successful British urban acts in America, so now they look and say. 'Let’s see what else you guys have over there.’ The gates are open.”